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An early contender for woman of the year

Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Or Person of the year, but that sounds so artificial.

From that source of many fine things, the Romanian Times:


A Romanian MP read a nonsense speech in the Chamber of Deputies yesterday (Tues) but no one else appeared to notice as her colleagues applauded her at its end.  Liberal Adriana Săftoiu read quotes from American journalists and politicians on themes ranging from terrorism to cancer treatment without anyone noticing.  Săftoiu said afterwards she had wanted to test her colleagues’ attention to speeches and show that an MP could say anything.  Săftoiu told the daily Gandul that she had done it in protest against the way MPs behaved in Parliament.  She said: "I wanted to show my colleagues it did not matter what one said." 

I'm going to let someone else take a shot at the open goal that this presents.

Săftoiu looks to be a good egg, and her party a selection of good ova.  I suspect I would vote for them were I granted a vote in Romanian elections. 

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posted by Croydonian

Free to choose?

Sunday, May 24, 2009
Rather an amusing spat is roiling Romania, the issue being how it promotes itself to tourists (I doubt many would get further than Bran Castle, but that's another story).

Here is the official tourist promotion video, 'Romania the land of choice:



I could not stay the course, what with the music being so awful.

And the response, 'The End of Choice'. This contains some mid-level English language profanity, and a bearded Elvis impersonator, so be advised:



Views for the first are heading towards 32,000, while those for the latter are approaching 148,000.

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posted by Croydonian

The return of the Hohenzollerns?

Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Admittedly not the wing that ruled Prussia, but rather the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringens, which lucked out and was gifted the crown of Romania back in 1866, trading up from a speck of SE Germany for a fairly sizeable piece of Danubian real estate.

Anyway, Radu Duda, Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen has declared for the Romanian presidency. One might note that he was born a commoner and prior to marrying well was an art therapist. Father in law, 'King' Michael is 87, and had no male heirs, hence the Regele Românilor giving the chap a title.

The current president, Traian Băsescu, is a social democrat, who has the distinction of winning a referendum on whether his iumpeachment should stand.

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posted by Croydonian

Romanian near-fascists to Alessandra Mussolini: We can be rude about our gypsies, but you mustn't.

Friday, November 09, 2007
A tale from Der Spiegel, which in the words of an SNP MEP, 'warms the heart':

The less than loveable Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty ragbag group in Brussels has had quite the falling out over recent events in Italy, "the murder of an Italian woman...which police suspect was perpetrated by a Romanian immigrant from the Roma community".

Alessandra Mussolini commented "Breaking the law became a way of life for Romanians", and the Partidul România Mare or Greater Romania Party does not like that interpretation at all: "The unconsciousness of this lady who makes easily generalizations, leaving us to understand that all the Romanians are living like delinquents and are making dreadful crimes -- remind us of her grandfather, the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini". And this comes from Corneliu Vadim Tudor (no relation) the non-MEP leader of the GRP. The GRP wants La Mussolini expelled from ITS.

Righty-ho. The GRP has designs on Moldova, the Vojvodina, bit of Ukraine and other places where Romanians are to be found other than Romania itself, and its publications "include articles that denied the Holocaust in Romania and took deliberately antagonistic positions toward Romanian Roma, ethnic Hungarians, and other minority groups". So, a nice bunch all round.

The ideological ancestors of both made common cause in the Axis, of course.

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posted by Croydonian